"Remember when I said I wanted to tell you something?"
Olivia gasped lightly.
"Well, I was trying to tell you that I could use magic too, but I didn't have the time. Why didn't you tell me that thing is what you were fighting? I would have joined you sooner if I knew what was coming." The Origami Craftsman tapped the ground with his staff twice.
"No fair, no fair!" Magic cried. "You can't just keep calling in help! When do I get backup?!" She tossed Olive's arm aside.
Mimi revealed her true form. "I'll try to hold her back! Find a way to stop her!"
She didn't even get to do anything before Magic jumped on her and began tearing her limbs off.
"Right, cats and spiders. Not a good mix," Olly said. "What do we do?"
"Get away from her!" Dimentio latched onto Magic's face and started biting her.
"Get off of me!" Magic smacked him off, then grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into Mimi; furthering both of their injuries.
The Origami Craftsman thought for a moment. "So, she has dark magic like you and Dimentio. So, that means I need to stop her."
"You have light magic?" Olivia asked.
He nodded, smiling. "Magic, come and stop me before I destroy your machine!"
She whipped her head around, currently working on biting Fawful's leg. He fell, his boot coming off in her mouth. She dropped the boot. "Why do you think you can trick me like that, mushroom boy?"
"Try me, witch." He held up his staff in both hands.
Magic took that as a threat and rushed at him. He slammed the staff into the ground, a forcefield separating her and the three. She skid to a stop before running into it.
"I knew you were plotting something." She sat down. "But I know you can't hold that forever. Your magic died with your age." She grabbed something out of her torn lab coat. "I know light magic is powerful, but we'll see how long that can last with a full demon's power in me."
In her hand was the small jar with Dimentio's magic inside. The purple liquid splashed against the walls of the flask as she twirled it, holding the top with two fingers. The fact she mentioned Dimentio's magic belonging to a "full demon" is what brought Olly to realize she wasn't a full-blood, which would make since about her human form.
Little did she know, Dimentio wasn't full demon either.
"Wait, no!" Olly tried to force it out of her claws with Fold of Life, but Peter's shield prevented his magic from going through.
Magic popped off the top and drank the solution. Her eyed widened and her pupils turned to slits.
"Oho, wow. This tastes like trash! That was a mistake..." She collapsed, digging her claws into her gut.
Peter let down the forcefield and tapped her with mushroom top of his staff. "Did she just...kill herself? What was that she just drank?"
"That was Dimentio's magic," Olly said, shuddering. "And I don't th-think she's down yet. She's still breathing."
Peter backed away from her a bit. "But she's not moving. I-is she okay?"
Dimentio ran over. "No, nononono." He grabbed the jar from her hand. "No...My magic...It's gone."
"Isn't magic inside of you?" Olivia asked innocently. "Like, the magic of friendship?"
"Didn't you see what she did?! She can steal magic! She deflected the Chaos Heart Entity's magic! That thing!"
"But...I thought..."
"Now I really am worthless..."
"That's not true! You still have-"
"Shut it, Olivia! It's gone, all of it..."
Fawful limped over to them, then kicked Magic in the head. "Take that!"
"How are Mimi and Olive doing?" Olly asked.
"Neither of them can move," Dimentio said sadly. "And looks like Fawful is hurt pretty badly too."
"But, she needed that for her machine, right?" El asked. "Unless...Oh no."
"What's wrong?" Peter asked.
"There was no weapon. She did that all to lead us here...so she could use Dimentio's magic to kill us all!"
Magic began to laugh weakly. "And I'm so glad that worked...Because you all dropped your guard when I..." She coughed. "And now that I have a demon's power, I can finally finish what I started. Say your prayers to Grambi, because you're about to see him real soon."
She rose to her pawed hands, and she had seemingly increased in height. A bit of blood dripped from her stomach from where she'd injured herself, but she had no other visible damage. She rose a foot, then slammed it down at the three. Peter summoned back the shield to protect them, but it was starting the break.
"What do we do?!" Olivia cried. "I have no idea how to do that blasty thing again!"
The forcefield shattered, but she still didn't crush them. Instead, her foot was being held in the air by clawed hands. They looked, and saw Olive in the form of the Chaos Heart Entity behind them.
"Move please..." Olive said.
They moved away and Olive let go of her foot. She smacked him immediately afterwards.
"So, you wanna fight, metal brat? Let's rumble then."
Olive got into a fighting stance, reminding Olly that he'd been taking fighting lessons from All Might while at UA. "I accept. You think you can take me down, Magic? Pathetic."
"Olive, be careful! Don't hurt her too badly!"
"Olivia, what are you talking about? She just tried to kill you, and you want me to go easy on her?"
"Olive, the Chaos Heart Entity is what I'm worried about. For the love of Grambi, kick her butt!"
Fawful grabbed Dimentio's spear and handed it back to him. Dimentio just shook his head sadly. Fawful fixed up the bent wooden handle with some tape, then tried to hand it back again.
"Fawful gives you this!"
"Fawful, what is that going to do?" Dimentio was trying to help Mimi to her feet. "Come on, Mimi. I know you're still alive. Come on please, answer me."
Magic chuckled. "What are you, robot boy? You look like some horrifying crossbreed of a demon and a scrap heap."
"Demon?" Olive asked, blocking her attack with his arm. "What are you talking about? This is what the Chaos Heart made me look like. Why don't you ask it when I finish you off once and for all?"
She grabbed his arm in her mouth and began to shake it aggressively. The purple which held it together flickered away, and the pieces of his arm fell to the ground.
"There goes my other arm..." He touched the empty joint. "Thankfully that wasn't my main arm."
Fawful was making some adjustments to his gun, Dimentio and Mimi watching.
"Fawfie, what are you doing?" Dimentio asked, letting Mimi lean on him.
"Fawful is making a new gun of the spear!" He held it up.
"That looks like a modified harpoon gun," Mimi said weakly.
"Hey..." Dimentio smiled. "Fawfie, I just got the best idea with that weapon of yours."
Magic glanced back to see Fawful and Dimentio whispering to each other. She rushed towards them, but Olive grabbed her by the tail.
"Where do you think you're going? Not to them, I hope."
"Let me go!" She fought his grasp.
"I wouldn't fight too much, Magic. I don't want to rip your tail off. That'll be much more disturbing to me than it probably will be to you."
"You're bluffing."
"I...wish I was. But the CHE has a lot of strength and a mind of its own and well...Let's just say that if I was in full control, I would have let go by now."
"Why tap into a demon form you can't even control?"
"I told you, I'm not a demon; and the Chaos Heart doesn't even have a body, so it's not a demon either."
"Aren't you its body?"
"I'm not the Chaos Heart."
"Sure, and the four-armed, four-legged monster isn't a demon form." She turned around and ran the opposite direction, taking Olive with her.
He slammed his feet into the floor, slowing them both into a stop. He changed his stance and spun her in a few circles. He then tossed her into her own lab, destroying it.
"Noo! Why would you do that? Don't you know how long it took to build that? It took me weeks to get the rights to that land!"
Olive raised an eyebrow. "The entire lab is gone, and you're worried about the right of the land? I think you need to get your priorities straight."
"Why?"
"You're a villainess! Just build your slapback friddlyfrack lab anywhere you want to!"
She tackled him. "You must have a weak point somewhere, Olive. You can't be completely indestructible, Queen Jaydes wouldn't have liked that."
Olive tried to push her off of him. "Nng...You're so heavy!"
"Rude. I'm not that much smaller than you. I'd bet you'd weigh a ton more, being metal and all."
"Can you get your priorities straight for three seconds? Why does it matter if your demon form is freaking heavy?! Just get off of me!"
Olive began to push her off, and Fawful and Dimentio nodded to each other. Fawful fired off the spear gun, which now had a rope attached to the back. Dimentio caught it and they pulled it away from each other as far as possible without breaking the rope. Magic backed off of Olive and tripped on the rope. They took it over her as she rose to her feet again, and they both attached their ends to the floor, causing the rope to hold her in place by the neck.
She screamed angrily, and trashed her body around, trying to get free.
"Oh my gosh." Dimentio muttered. "I can't believe that actually worked!"
"Dimentio is of the genius!" Fawful said, running over to him.
He tried to give Dimentio a high-five, but Dimentio had apparently just wanted a fist bump. They switched it, fumbled around with their hands for a few seconds, and just got awkward and stopped entirely.
"Heh...We'll get it eventually. I still don't really understand the uh...hand thing for a celebration but yeah." Dimentio started rubbing the end of his poncho between his fingers to avoid any further conversation.
Olive came over and turned back to himself. He was now down an arm, and had a huge hole in his side. "Okay, that was awesome. Nice plan. I was worried I'd have to fight her on my own while badly injured and-Oh. I think she broke something." He covered the hole, which had oil spraying out of it. "Tape's going to be so mad when I ask him for help again...Heh."
Magic stopped fighting the rope.
"So what were you planning?" Peter asked, tapping her face with his staff.
"Fine," she sighed. "Since I'm stuck, I might as well tell you. I was going to try and destroy everyone on this planet. Why? Because it's about to be under a new order, and if he finds any people in this place that can't use magic, he's going to do it himself. And trust me, it would be better for everyone if you'd just let me end you. Then he'd probably kill me next, and that would be terrible for Magica."
"Magica?" Olly asked. "Are they a relative?"
Magic nodded. "She's my twin sister. She's a lot stronger than me. I had to do this, to save her. She's not a 'filthy-blood' demon like me."
"What does that mean?" Dimentio asked. "So she's not a half demon?"
"I'm not even half. I'm only a quarter." Her ears drooped. "I didn't want to do this, honest. I think everyone here is cute and harmless! If only he would see that..."
"Who's this person you keep mentioning?" El asked, too scared to come closer to her, making his voice faint.
"The King. I don't know his name; but I know he's a tyrant. Ruthless, heartless, cold. He captured Magica because she was 'too weak' in his eyes. He'd also captured and tortured someone named Sandrahara. He's looking for her lost son."
Dimentio felt his heart beating in his throat. "Sandrahara? Son? Do you know anything about them?"
She sadly shook her head. "No, I just know she died after being shot by the King's guards. Apparently she was sneaking out that night, while she was under watch. I heard she was dangerous."
"If you're not a full demon, or even half," Mimi asked, "then what would you call yourself?"
"A Mubishia. We're magic users, and the King loves us since he's one of us."
"So he's just straight-up racist then," Olivia said.
"Pretty much. But since I apparently was 'useful' to him, he sent me to do the dirty work for him. If I go back empty-handed then...He'd have my demon form's head mounted on a wall."
"So...you're part demon," Dimentio said. "And you can use magic. Does that mean..."
"What's wrong?" Mimi worried.
"What would you call a half-demon-half-Mubishian?"
"A Halfling? How am I supposed to know?" Magic answered. "I don't think they have a name. Why?"
"Do all demons and Halflings have demon forms, yes or no?"
"Yes? What's so important about this? We have bigger problems to deal with right now than about us."
"Sandrahara...Is a person named Davidonell still alive?"
"I think so. I heard something about a resistance led by an 'O' Nell' before I headed here."
Dimentio bit his lower lip. "So...I wonder if he's just as bad as her."
"Dimentio?" El asked. "Are you okay?"
"So I have a demon form. I guess that makes sense. I had a feeling something wasn't right with me. So that's why my puppet felt so...right. He was a demon. I had no idea." He ran his hand through his hair, chuckling a bit to himself. "I just thought I had another thing wrong with me. Heh...so I'm actually normal for once. I don't know if I want to cry or scream."
Olly came a little closer to Magic. "That form...It looks similar to the Chaos Heart Entity and my beast form at once."
"B-beast form?" Magic asked.
"Yeah, I thought I started getting the hang of it, but it turns out I was wrong. I had just figured out how to go into it on my own, too." Olly sighed. Olly described it the best he could. "Does any demon in your world fit the description?"
"No. That might just be a curse, Olly."
"I knew it."
"If you knew, why ask?"
"I had to run it by a professional just to make sure. I probably would have freaked out if I ended up being a demon..."
"But your friend, Olive, he's definitely a demon. In fact, he matches the look of the Magic Eater demon from the legends. Well, a few details are off, but the four arms and legs fit."
"Magic Eater?" Olive asked, crossing his arms. "I thought you did that, not...whatever you said just now."
"I can, but only because I was tested on. The King...I hate him so much."
"What's the legend?" El asked, finally closer to her.
"Fawful wants a story!" Fawful cheered.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know. All I know is that the King told me to find the demon that fit the look and bring it back to him if I ever found it while here." Magic shifted in the rope. "Look, I know we got off to a bad start, but I would do anything to help my sister. Please, let me go. I promise with my life that I will help you stop the King and save Magica."
They all faced Olly.
"Well, you are the leader," Dimentio mentioned. "What do you think, my royal highness?"
Olly looked at the Origami Craftsman, who nodded. "But I'm coming with you this time."
Olly freed Magic. "You promise, right?"
"Yes, I owe you my life for giving me mercy. I'm sorry for attacking you."
"Can you turn back?" Olly asked, a bit concerned now.
She nodded. "I just couldn't while strapped down." She morphed back into herself, then rubbed her neck. "If you need to tie me down again, please don't use a rope next time." She fixed her tail fur. "I...just lost my only place here. Can I stay with one of you for a while?"
"Sure! I have plenty of room in my-wait! Where are the other villains? The ones we were hunting down originally?"
"I had captured them and sent them to the King. He's probably experimenting on them now. I feel bad, but they had magic so I did what I was told. I'm not going to ask you to try and justify my actions. I know I've done awful things, I just want to know if you forgive me or not. I promise I can do better. I can even help you sneak into the castle. I can even free the villains and demons trapped there. But please don't say that it was because I was told to. I don't want to be forgiven for that. I want to be forgiven by becoming a better person."
"I would never justify your actions. I didn't to Dimentio, Fawful, Bowser, or even myself. We've done bad things, but telling people that it was because we were 'confused' or something stupid. I tried to commit genocide, just because I thought the Origami Craftsman hated me, and I kept thinking about him every time I saw a Toad."
"Fawful tortured Bowser and the Mario Brothers!" Fawful said. "Fawful also kidnapped the Princess of Peaches. And made Bowser super fat."
Dimentio snorted.
Mimi nodded. "And I tried to kill Mario, care about money more than my own family, and am in love with him." She pointed at Dimentio.
"Fair. I destroyed dimensions because I 'felt like it,' tortured Luigi-out of anyone, stabbed Blumiere in the back, killed like six people including myself, manipulated Olive, tried to kill a bunch of teens, put said teens into a trial for my friendship that was just completely unneeded, traumatized my puppet, killed my best friends, fused myself forcefully with Olive, continues doing said action in order to feel complete, got me and Olly killed, nearly killed Luigi again, almost killed Mimi, got Olive stuck with the Chaos Heart Entity for eternity, almost killed Olly in my sleep that one time,"
"I remember that," Olly said. "I think she gets the point, you can stop now."
"Alright. I still had a good handful of things left, but you get what I'm saying, right?"
"I'm scared of you now, if that's what you're asking," Magic said, her ears drooping and her tail wrapping around her leg.
"To feel complete?" Olive muttered to himself. "Must be about the arms."
"We need to report back to Rosalina," Olly said. "Before things go crazy again. Magic, you can head back to the Mushroom Kingdom. I'll meet up with you in a bit. Olivia, father, you can go back with her to apologize. If she has honest people with her, they can trust her apology to be true." Olly faced the others. "Dimentio, take Mimi to get some help. I don't like the way her arm is bent. Fawful, you can go back to the Beanbean Kingdom and let them know what happened. If the King catches wind that Magic's working with us now, he's probably going to come here to hunt her down and do the duty himself. El, do you want to go with Magic, Fawful, or me?"
"What about Olive?" El asked.
"Olive needs to go back to the Origami Kingdom and get that leak checked at. I don't care if Tape will be mad, I;m concerned about the oil loss."
"I-it's not like blood, Olly." Olive said.
"I guess you can go with him, in case he breaks down or something. You can carry him, right?"
El nodded. "With Star power."
"Terrible joke, but alright. I'm going to Bowser's Castle to tell Rosalina about what happened. We'll meet back up in Origami Castle, got it?"
They all nodded.
"Right, let's go."